Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
Phoning in a Murder (Jolie Gentil Cozy Mystery Series) by Elaine L. Orr
Phoning in a Murder (Jolie Gentil Cozy Mystery Series)
Cozy Mystery
14th in Series
Setting -The fictional town of Ocean Alley at the Jersey Shore.
Publisher : Lifelong Dreams Publishing (June 30, 2024)
Paperback : 181 pages
Lots of teachers are irritated by students paying more attention to their cell phones than what’s going on in the classroom. Some would like to see their school ban cell phones during the school day. They don’t hold out a lot of hope for a cell phone ban, so they work around them.
More than most faculty, the band director at Ocean Alley High School doesn’t want students to have phones in class, and he especially doesn’t want the band distracted by them when they march on the football field. Imagine his reaction when one goes off during the National Anthem. When no student will apologize, Mr. O’Halloran cancels band practice the week before a big competition. Talk about a good way to tick off students, parents, and band boosters. With Scoobie’s brother Terry as one of the bass drummers, Jolie and family have strong opinions. But someone is a lot more upset. At least the knitting needle in the band director’s neck seems to say so.
If Jolie hadn’t been the first to find the man, she would be less insistent to know what happened to him. What really gets the Ocean Alley crew invested is the last two people the school security system shows talking to Mr. O’Halloran – Scoobie’s brother and his best friend. Rumors abound.
With appraising houses, running the food pantry, and keeping four-year old twins in line, Jolie has her hands full. Scoobie’s best friend George is always willing to butt into a mystery. Sometimes that’s helpful. Other times, not so much.
Interview with Elaine Orr
Thanks for taking the time to share a bit about yourself with my readers and me!
Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m one of five children of parents who like to read, and a Midwest transplant, having been born in Washington DC and lived much of my life in that area. I had several jobs that involved analytical thinking, and while that doesn’t sound much like fiction, it prepared me to write and do research. Once I began writing, it was hard to stop.
How long have you been writing?
For probably 25 years I jotted notes and wrote short things and a few plays. Then I decided that writing books was more my style and started doing it seriously in about 2005. The first ones were published at the end of 2010 and beginning of 2011.
Did you always want to be an author? What made you choose the cozy mystery genre?
I wouldn’t say always, or I suppose I would have gone into writing programs instead of political science. I did take a journalism course right after college and wrote a lot of very boring reports. When it comes to fiction though, cozy mysteries were a natural for me. I had always enjoyed traditional mysteries like Agatha Christie’s or MC Beaton’s work. I also decided that while some people might not read cozies, they could be read by everyone from high school up. If you write something that has a lot of violence or sex. There are distinct audiences for those, but not everyone wants to read them. Not that everyone wants to read cozies. I occasionally hear someone who has never read one refer to them as too simple.
Do you prefer to read cozy mystery books, or do you have another favorite genre? What are you reading now?
I read a little bit of everything. I like Anne Tyler, who writes literary fiction. There are still Agatha Christie books I haven’t read. I do read some thrillers, from authors such as John Sandford’s Virgil Flowers series or almost anything by Daniel Silva. I like books where the characters are compelling. One of my favorite books is Pompeii by Robert Harris. Of course, you know how it’s going to end, but the characters he created and the situations he describes are fascinating.
Do you have a favorite place to write?
I write in places with some activity, but not something I’m involved in. That way I feel like I’m with people but I don’t have to talk much. Libraries are good and when I first moved to Illinois I spent a lot of time in Starbucks. I can also write at home. It may sound trite, but the hardest thing about that is keeping the cat away from me. I really like her but she wants to sit on the keyboard or my lap.
What’s on your desk (if you write at one!)?
Interesting question. Most of it is writing related, a laptop and a couple of printers. A tiny little TV about 6 inches by 5 inches that I found on the Internet. A lamp of course. What’s different than some other people is that I keep a display that I entered into the Illinois State Fair. It has political buttons from 1968. I won a blue ribbon! And it’s not because of the buttons, it’s because of the stories I wrote about them. Nonpartisan of course.
What is the first book you remember reading as a child? What was one of your favorite books you read as a child?
Probably Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses. The pictures drew me in, but I can remember poems that went with some of them. “Over the tops of the trees. Oh, it is fun to travel in swings,. Seeing new lands as you fly;. Yes, you can see very wonderful things. Up in the air so high.” I remember that almost verbatim, though I did verify. I suppose I think of the poem as reflecting imagination.
Do you like audiobooks, physical books, or e-books better? Why?
I like all of them. I probably read audio books the most because you can read them in the car and I do a lot of driving. Oddly they don’t distract me in the car the way that music does. I think for audiobooks you’re listening to someone else’s imagination, and with music you’re inserting yours into the melodies.
If you had the opportunity to live anywhere in the world for a year while writing a book that took place in that same setting, where would you choose?
What a good question. A couple of places I really wanted to visit and really enjoyed getting to know were Morocco and Kenya. But I might say Bath in England. It’s an incredible city, underneath the Georgian architecture of today there are Roman baths, elaborate structures that you can’t believe were buried for hundreds of years. In fact, the first book I published was set there. It’s not my best book, and I always wanted to go back and experience that place and write another story about it.
What or who has influenced you the most as a writer?
Hmm. My mother read Mary Stewart and Phyllis Whitney, i think they are called Gothic novels, So I read them first and probably learned from them. I like humor that is situational rather than something written to make me laugh. The Hamish MacBeth books by M.C. Beaton do that. There’s also a lot of understated humor in the Virgil flowers books. I do like Richard Osmond’s stories, set in a small village in England. However, it’s a lot of humor that seems a bit forced to me. Not to criticize his books, which I enjoy, just to draw the distinction.
Do you have any author friends who support you while you’re writing? Do you belong to any writing groups?
I live in the same town as Leigh Michaels, who has mostly written romance, in which she uses a lot of humor and keeps you wanting to discover more about what’s going on. She’s also a good writing teacher and friend. Karen Musser Nortman, who writes the Frannie Shoemaker Campground Mysteries and the Time Travel Trailer mysteries, has become a good friend. She emailed me because she saw we wrote similar books. We share manuscripts and have gone to conferences together.
Finally, what are you working on now? Can you tell us a bit about it?
I started to tell you about a new series I’m starting, but I decided I would have to explain too much. In part because I haven’t got it all nailed down yet, and you always talk longer when you’re not sure of yourself. The next book will be the 6th book in the family history mystery series, set in the western Maryland mountains. It has a slight paranormal edge, and I’d like to develop that a little more without making it too unrealistic. I’m planning to go there early in the fall to do some more research.
Thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions!
About Elaine Orr
Elaine L. Orr has authored more than 30 works of fiction, including four mystery series. What makes her fiction different from other traditional mysteries? Some might say the dry humor (only a few say lame), but she thinks it is the empathy her characters show to others. Fiction doesn’t always have to be profound. But it can contain people whose paths we cross every day — whether we know it or not.
Her books include the fourteen-book Jolie Gentil cozy mystery series, which is set at the Jersey shore. Behind the Walls was short-listed for the 2014 Chanticleer Mystery and Mayhem Awards. “Reading any Jolie Gentil book is like spending time with cherished friends. That feeling grows as the series continues.” Phoning in a Murder came out in late June 2024.
The River’s Edge series takes place among the cornfields of Southeastern Iowa, along the Des Moines River. A fired news reporter switches to landscaping, but still digs up trouble. Demise of a Devious Neighbor was a Chanticleer shortlister in 2017
The Western Maryland mountains, near Deep Creek Lake, host the five-book Family History Mystery Series. The Unscheduled Murder Trip received a B.R.A.G. Medallion in 2021..
Small-town Illinois is the setting for the Logland Series, which features Police Chief Elizabeth Friedman — a police procedural with a cozy feel. Amid the mystery and laughs, Final Cycle, set during a Christmas season, shows why it’s important to assist those who are difficult to help.
Elaine also writes plays and novellas, including the one-act, Common Ground. Her novella, Biding Time, was one of five finalists in the National Press Club’s first fiction contest, in 1993. Falling into Place is a novella about family strength as a World War II veteran rises to the toughest occasion. (It’s also Elaine’s favorite book.) In the Shadow of Light is the fictional story of Corozón and her family, who are separated at the U.S./Mexico border.
A member of Sisters in Crime and the Independent Book Publishers Association, Elaine grew up in Maryland and moved to the Midwest in 1994. She now lives in Springfield, Illinois.
Author Links
Website https://www.elaineorr.com
Blog https://elaineorr.blogspot.com
Twitter/X https://twitter.com/ElaineOrr55
Threads https://www.threads.net/@elaine.orr1
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/elaine.orr1/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@AuthorElaineOrr
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/elaineorr55/
BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/elaine-l-orr
Purchase Links – Amazon – Apple – Kobo – B&N – Google
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Phoning in a Murder TOUR PARTICIPANTS
August 13 – Mystery, Thrillers, and Suspense – SPOTLIGHT
August 14 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
August 14 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
August 15 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
August 15 – Baroness Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT
August 16 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – SPOTLIGHT
August 17 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
August 17 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT
August 18 – Lady Hawkeye – SPOTLIGHT
August 19 – Reading Is My SuperPower – AUTHOR GUEST POST
August 19 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
August 20 – Cozy Up With Kathy – AUTHOR GUEST POST
August 21 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
August 21 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER GUEST POST
August 22 – Sneaky the Library Cat’s blog – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
August 22 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – AUTHOR GUEST POST
August 23 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
August 24 – fundinmental – SPOTLIGHT
August 24 – StoreyBook Reviews – AUTHOR GUEST POST
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This looks like a fun cozy mystery that I would enjoy reading!
Congrats on your tour. Best wishes.
This looks like a cozy mystery that I will enjoy.